Each line sums it up
by notyouraveragegirlemily
Summary: Taken from LJ...50 themes.  One sentence.  Derek. Casey. Love.


Title: Each line sums it up

Author: Emily

Rating: T

Characters: Casey, Derek, Lizzie, Edwin, Marti, Nora, George, Max, Sam, Dennis.

Pairings: Derek/Casey, mentions of Max/Casey, Sam/Casey

AN: I actually started this long before 'Enough', and one of the lines was what jumpstarted that beast. Angst and romance abound, with a little humor—I'm not as naturally funny as the LWD writers, who all these characters belong to. Small warning: this starts with a character death. Also, there's a theme that recurs with a couple of these, but none of them are really meant to be taken together. Spoilers through US Season 3. Enjoy!

1. Ring

The sun glinting off her mother's ring was almost, almost enough to blind Casey, almost but not enough to block the vision of Nora's coffin being lowered into the ground.

2. Hero

It started small, with seeing him with Marti, and Casey's faith in the goodness in Derek's soul was cemented when she overheard him talking to Edwin about being bullied.

3. Memory

True, they were never that organized (or British), but Casey cherished thoughts of her old life, looking at her new life like a puzzle piece that just didn't fit.

4. Box

She wanted to be embarrassed when she crashed through Marti's house because Sam had seen it, so why was it that Derek's gaze was what made her cheeks burn?

5. Run

"God, Casey, you're just so—", and Derek stormed out of the room, leaving Casey desperate to fly after him, to beat her fists against his chest and cry into his neck until he held her again.

6. Hurricane

Lizzie was so angry when Casey said, "It's cancer, Liz" that she'd hung up on her, and Derek held Casey all night as she watched the clock that kept ticking and the phone that didn't ring.

7. Wings

"Zoom, Daddy!", and Dennis would swing little Casey around the room even faster, her squeals of laughter like jet fuel for his arms and his heart.

8. Cold

Derek told her he thought it was funny, the way she squirmed when she was cold, but he stopped laughing when her icy feet found his inner thighs.

9. Red

Casey felt like she'd gotten her money's worth, even after Derek tore the lacy panties in two pulling them off of her, ensuring that she'd never be able to wear them again.

10. Drink

The teacup rattles against the saucer when Casey sneezes again, and even more healing than the herbal tea is Derek's sympathetic smile.

11. Midnight

Her mouth slides hungrily over his, and her heated whisper—"We'll finish this in my room tonight"—glues Derek's eyes to the clock.

12. Temptation

They haven't gone all the way yet, but when Derek's hand is moving in her panties and he's pressed against her, she wants him to just slide into her.

13. View

Derek pours his heart out to his father—"I love Casey, I do"—and is awed when George finally looks at him and sees him as a man.

14. Music

Edwin knows Casey hums when she's really happy, and when he hears her humming and sees the sweet looks and smiles between her and his brother, the pieces all fall into place.

15. Silk

As Casey dozes on his shoulder, Derek trails his fingers over her bare back and marvels at how soft she is, so different from his own roughness, and he wonders again what she sees in him anyway.

16. Cover

They are going out with friends tonight, friends who will give them time and space alone, but when Casey comes downstairs, Derek's fingers itch to throw something over her bare shoulders so no one else can see her.

17. Promise

Even though the 'cool kids' don't wear seat belts, Derek can't dodge promising Casey he'd wear it, not when her eyes are so big and worried.

18. Dream

"…and there was a giant pink chicken! It was weird!", and her voice dies out at the sound of his laughter, and she relishes it, even if it is at her own expense.

19. Candle

The tang of burned wax and the overly sweet smell of fake baked cookies nearly overpowered the stench of scorched bread, but none of the smells distracted Derek from Casey's sheepish expression.

20. Talent

When she was with Max, she nearly had to beg him to come to the musical—now, a year later, on opening night, Max is long gone and Derek is in the front row with tulips and a standing ovation for Casey when the show ends.

21. Silence

Comfortably nestled in the corner of the couch with a magazine in his hands and Casey's feet in his lap as she reads, Derek realizes that the house is, for once, totally quiet, and he doesn't mind it at all.

22. Journey

When they started rehearsing, he sounded timid but not terrible, but by the time they sang their duet in front of an audience, their voices mingled like magic.

23. Fire

The flare of heat in Derek's belly when Casey gives him that look from under her lashes hasn't faded, not even after 10 years of marriage and three children.

24. Strength

He once called her 'the girl who couldn't pick up a lamp without calling a moving company', but as he watches her carry another carton into their new home, he stands corrected.

25. Mask

He's afraid of both the intensity of his feelings and the thought that they're not reciprocated, so he hides them with pranks and sarcasm, even when her pain cuts him.

26. Ice

Their first kiss happened by accident—Casey was trying to slip ice cubes down his shirt, and he caught her wrists in one of his hands and pulled her against him with the other, and the ice cubes melted in her hand as their mouths met over and over.

27. Fall

The leaves are turning when they share their first kiss, they get engaged in the snow and married among the spring blossoms, and in the heat of summer Derek finds himself still nostalgic for fall and its memories.

28. Forgotten

Derek couldn't recall the last time he was this frightened--Casey's broken sobbing on the other end of the phone line as she told him about the abuses she'd suffered and her desperate plans to escape redefined terror for him.

29. Dance

Derek is angry when he arrives home from hockey practice (there's no way they'll be ready for the big game Saturday, he fumes), but his bad mood evaporates when he walks through the front door and sees Casey shimmying to some upbeat hip hop melody, hair swinging and body swirling, and he thinks 'I could get used to this'.

30. Body

About a month after moving into George's house, Casey bumps (literally) into Derek as he's leaving the bathroom, and when he's wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, she can understand what all the fuss is about.

31. Sacred

Back when Derek had asked Lucy out, he had justified it to Casey by saying he wasn't a one woman man, but that was only because he couldn't find in one woman everything he was looking for—not until he finally won Casey's heart.

32. Farewells

When the reception finally ended and Casey thought she couldn't bear another moment in her white-satin-perfect-match-to-her-gown shoes, she and Derek kissed their family goodbye and climbed into the limo, savoring the idea that they were alone for the first time since the priest said that Derek could kiss his bride.

33. World

They make a game of it, spinning the globe and pointing to other countries, talking about all the things they'd do in each, always agreeing to walk down the street holding hands, because no one would know they were stepsiblings.

34. Formal

Casey can't tear her eyes away from the photo in her hand—Derek has his arm around her waist, and her cheeks are as pink as her gown—and she feels a tingle in her stomach when she remembers the heat of his hand through the dress.

35. Fever

He was flooded with heat—surely it wasn't healthy to burn like this, but then again, since he'd not seen Casey naked before this, he really had nothing to compare this fire inside him to.

36. Laugh

He never would have admitted it to anyone before they got together, but he likes making Casey laugh (but only when it's a big, full, loud laugh, and not that polite giggle she uses when something's not really funny), so when he tickles her after the first time they make love, he laughs with her.

37. Lies

Derek swears he never touched her brownie batter, let alone dipped his finger in it for a taste, but Casey sees a smear of chocolate on his mouth, and her eyes are laughing so he knows he's okay.

38. Forever

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?", and he turns to leave, but her voice stops him--"Yes. **Yes."**

39. Overwhelmed

She can barely eat, and when she does she gets sick, but Derek doesn't get scared until Casey is standing in front of him in a towel and her slippers, a handful of her hair in her hands and tears on her stark face.

40. Whisper

Derek is sure he's the only person who was able to hear her, and he smiles into her teary eyes and she clears her throat and repeats, "I do".

41. Wait

"Casey, we don't have to do this if you're not ready—" and the words falter when Casey presses herself against him and snatches the car keys from his hand.

42. Talk

After days and weeks and months of wishing Casey would **just shut up**, when she gets sick, Derek finds he misses the sound of her voice.

43. Search

When she first started falling in love with him, Casey feared that she'd lose herself in him, but she knows now that with him she's found who she really is.

44. Hope

She was obsessing over the feel of his breath on her cheek and the nearness of his warm body when he'd pulled her to her feet with the hula hoop, and that was what she steeled herself with when she went to his room that night, armed with physics as an excuse.

45. Eclipse

She can't quite pinpoint the moment that her constant irritation and frank dislike of him shifted into something more, but she knows that it's too soon to tell him the truth about her feelings, not without risking the tenuous pseudo-friendship that's blossomed between them.

46. Gravity

Derek knows about Casey's crush-induced clumsiness—after all, he'd been the one to coin 'Klutzilla'—so when she drops her calculus book in front of him and then tips onto the floor while picking it up, he feels a flicker of hope.

47. Highway

They pass endless miles in the car quiet and still, the radio playing softly and their hands entwined between the seats—no one else in the family comments on the way this vacation starts off quietly.

48. Unknown

Princess, Klutzilla, Grub…every name he called her pushed her farther into herself and made her want to hate him, but then he'd do something so sweet that she wasn't sure which was up anymore.

49. Lock

Casey was never as grateful for the lock on her bedroom door as she was the first time she tasted Derek's kiss and felt his fingers slide over shoulders left bare by the straps of her tank top.

50. Breathe

When all was said and done, and the wedding and reception were behind them, and they'd partaken in the typical wedding night rituals, and the moon was glowing high in the tropical sky, Derek was perfectly content to lay quietly in bed and hold Casey in his arms, feeling her breathe as he drifted off to sleep.


End file.
